Giant pigeons and map graffiti | Seb Tanti Burlo

This year's edition of Notte Bianca is built on the premise of a fresh start. A revamped programme, courtesy of new Artistic Director Sean Buhagiar, boasts 'boutique' events as well as the standard crowd-pulling fare for the annual all-night festival of art and entertainment in Valletta - set for 5 October.

But though it remains to be seen whether this balancing act will succeed when faced with the usual stampede of punters heading to the capital city, the fact remains that an infusion of younger talent is very much evident, and may just change the face of Notte Bianca as we know it.

One such participant is Seb Tanti Burlo. Having just graduated in architecture from the University of Westminster in London, he identifies himself as currently being a "title-less human being". But his contribution to Notte Bianca won't be negligible.

Teaming up once again with his frequent collaborators Ed Dingli and Mark Sullivan, Tanti Burlo will be helping to design and construct a giant pigeon, which is meant to peer over the crowd.

"The original brief was to create a structure that was representative of Valletta, blow it up and suspend it above the city. A sort of 'urban node' that could be seen from afar and that would bring people in," Tanti Burlo says of Ggantija's early stages, during which time the trio also agreed to veer away from stereotypical representations of Valletta and Malta.

"We wanted to steer away from pointed crosses and the gardjola... so we got to brainstorming."

Tanti Burlo, Dingli and Sullivan arrived at the idea of pigeons through a very specific thought process.

"We asked ourselves, who comes to Valletta? You have the commuting populations, then you have the lawyers and then the politicians. And then, you'll see the pigeons hobbling after the politicians. I don't want to call pigeons the 'unsung heroes' of Valletta, but they definitely have a strong presence in the city."

The project is still at a raw development stage when I speak to Tanti Burlo, but the idea is for this giant pigeon to be perched in a central Valletta location come 5 October. Ggantija was originally set to have a wingspan of 18 metres and a height of eight metres, but it's being scaled back for logistical reasons - seemingly oblivious to the unintended pun, he says that the size of the construction is "up in the air".

"Hopefully, though, it'll be big."

But apart from being indigenous in concept, Ggantija turned out to be a very local project on a hands-on level too.

"We were originally in talks with float builders in China, and when that didn't prove feasible we got in touch with people in England - who in turn told us our plans couldn't be brought to life. But then we asked ourselves, why are we looking abroad when we have plenty of experienced carnival float builders right here?"

This yielded a collaboration with a certain carnival veteran called Ciccio - "I don't even know what his last name is" - who is helping the trio make their structure as viable as possible.

This injection of local flavour is something Tanti Burlo feels strongly about, and it's a direct influence on his other - and solo - Notte Bianca project, Kartun.

"I don't want to get too political about it, but as opposed to the 80s - when we were getting fed up of being Maltese - and the 90s and noughties, when we felt like we were finally part of the 'EU club', now we're growing more and more comfortable with local flavours and styles. You can see it everywhere: music, poetry, design... even architecture. Maltese tiles, for example, are suddenly back in fashion..."

A project close to Tanti Burlo's heart, Kartun will be a 'social map' of Valletta taking the form of a large stretched canvas placed in Teatru Rjal Square. While the map itself will be a plain-as-can-be representation of Valletta - devoid of any annotations or even street names - passersby will be encouraged to embellish it with their own impressions of Valletta.

"If you think there's a crappy restaurant somewhere in Valletta - make it known on the map! I don't really mind if kids write on it either... or if nobody writes anything at all - because either way, we'll learn something about the way people perceive the city."

With a sizeable chunk of the population set to visit Notte Bianca come 5 October, this is probably a very good strategy.

Notte Bianca is supported by the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts. For more information and a full programme log on to:
http://nottebianca.org.mt